Chesterfield 1-1 Bradford City – League 2

On Saturday 24th April 2010 I took a break from the snooker to go to Saltergate for the penultimate game ever at the ground.

Today was a game that Chesterfield needed to win to get back into the play off places. It was a beautiful sunny day and unless The Spireites make the play offs there will only be one more game at Saltergate after this one. This was the first match my Dad ever saw at Saltergate, so it was almost fitting that it was the 2nd to last one too.

As we did our usual walk around the ground we saw Jeff Hall, who is probably the biggest Chesterfield fan there is, he does everything for the club from selling programes to cleaning the changing rooms, and he was celebrating his 70th birthday today. After having a birthday photo with Jeff, we walked into the ground and took our seats.

The first half was very poor with neither side having any chances and both sides cancelled each other out. Chesterfield took the lead in the second half through Ishmel Demontagnac who beat the defence before taking the ball around the goalkeeper and putting it into an empty net.

Omar Daley got sent off on 71 minutes for elbowing Dan Gray. This however, seemed to make Bradford City play better than they had for the entire game. Just 4 minutes after the sending off, Gareth Evans scored to level the game.

A point at the end of the match is not really enough for Chesterfield, who now sit in 11th place with just 2 games left in the season.

After the match I got a photo with Chesterfield manager John Sheridan and defender Rob Page. I also met Bradford City players Gareth Evans, Louis Horne and Zesh Rehman.